Crown negotiations will test NSW’s mettle

When negotiations between NSW Premier
Barry O’Farrell
and Crown turn to the price of a second casino licence over the coming months, the state government will need someone highly astute in its corner.

If a competitive tender does not eventuate to determine the market price for a second licence, the process will largely come down to negotiation.
Crown
’s board is chock-full of highly experienced business people, with expertise in extracting maximum value out of governments and taxpayers. They include former Qantas chief
Geoff Dixon
, a master at keeping the airline protected from full competition on key aviation routes for many years. Macquarie Group financial engineer, Ben “Brains" Brazil, used the federal government guarantee over $17 billion of the bank’s funding to buy up assets on the cheap and make a killing for Macquarie during the global financial crisis.

John Alexander
, who held senior roles in the family’s media empire, knows only too well about how the free-to-air television oligopoly – including the Packers’ former station Channel Nine – was protected for many years by Canberra declining to grant a fourth licence, and by anti-siphoning laws for sporting events.

A new Crown director,
Helen Coonan
, is a recently retired NSW Liberal Senator who no doubt knows her way around the key decision makers in the Liberal state government. Former Labor party operatives-turned-Packer staff,
Mark Arbib
and
Karl Bitar
, are presumably not employed for their business acumen. While not company directors, they can open doors on the other side of politics.

State Opposition Leader
John Robertson
has already conditionally agreed to Packer’s proposal. Crown director
Chris Corrigan
has a track record of being pro-competition and despising government waste. Also, Crown executive chairman
James Packer
, a sharp businessman, knows how to cut a good deal.

The state has Treasurer and former banker
Mike Baird
on its team, which is a start. But recent mining tax negotiations and car industry handouts have proven there is asymmetric information between companies and governments. Consultants and Treasury and Finance department officials will help, but it’s hard to see them matching the smarts of the Crown board.